Parliament: An island in an island
Janet Laurence & Tega Brain,
GASP (Glenorchy Art & Sculpture Park) lutruwita (Tasmania) 2017.
Curated by Jonathan Kimberley & Pippa Dickson
Parliament: An island in an island, is a proposition for a major new public artwork at GASP, by Janet Laurence & Tega Brain.
As part of the GASP Swimmable: Reading the River program (2015-17), the artists have proposed a work that takes the form of a small island, to be located just off-shore, in the shallows of the Derwent River.
The island is to be a meeting of two constructed environments, two ‘houses’ of Parliament. The upper house is terrestrial, taking the form of a small tiered land-form, planted with specific vegetation and designed to attract and accommodate bird populations of the area as well as indicate seasonal transitions. The lower house is submerged around its edge – a constructed reef designed to support aquatic communities and offer new habitat to these river lifeforms.
Parliament is a whimsical platform for the representation of various non-human communities at the GASP site. It is a project that asks how might we create infrastructures and architectures that cater to the interests of both human and non-human communities alike? How can we co-produce environments that are not exclusively designed to be in the service of humans, but rather that incorporate a wider ecological agenda?
Parliament is an open artistic and ecological experiment and discussion, taking the form of an island. As a part of the Derwent Estruary system, the river at GASP has seen over a century of degradation and is lost significant habitat for salt marshes, oyster reefs, sea grass beds and whale colonies. A stark reminder of this is the 1849 painting on display at the Tasmanian Museum called Offshore whaling with Aladdin and Jane. The painting depicts a gruesome scene of the Derwent River – alive with whales and whalers in hot pursuit. The caption explains in the early 1800s, whales were so plentiful in the Derwent River that residents living nearby complained of sleeplessness due to the noise of their song. Today a lone whale is only spotted every few years in the vicinity of the GASP site. While the painted scene would have been located further down river towards Risdon Cove and Hobart than where the project site is located, this document of Tasmania’s ecological history is emblematic of what has been lost during the past two centuries.
Given the losses of these extraordinary communities, at scales we are unable to quantify, we are in desperate need of opportunities to amplify and celebrate the river’s often overlooked and under appreciated ecologies. Parliament: An island in an island, aims to do this, approaching the Derwent River in the context of a rapidly changing environment. As a small but symbolic intervention, the project marks a shift in perspective and an acknowledgement of our intimate entanglements with the river and its communities. Parliament is a work for the Anthropocene. It does not aim to reconstruct a native ecosystem or restore something that once was, nor is it a resolved answer to a complex set of problems. Rather it is intended to articulate an open question, through establishing an open system and an uncertain collaboration with other species. It is an experiment in art, ecology and environmental politics.
The island will provide a point of focus at the GASP site, which in itself, is a complex, dynamic environment. As the new island communities grow, shift and change over the decades, the work will act as a point of comparison and a marker for the environmental changes that are forecast such as sea level rises. As a place that can be observed from shore but not easily accessed, the work will create environmental curiosity and aims to foster stewardship on the Derwent River, at Glenorchy.